Tony Jaa was born in Surin province, Isaan, Thailand, and was raised in a rural area in Surin.[6] His hometown is 400 km far from Bangkok. As he grew up he watched films by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Vince Lam and Jet Li at temple fairs, which was his inspiration to learn martial arts. He was so inspired by them that while he was doing chores or playing with friends, he would imitate the martial arts moves that he had seen, practicing in his father's rice paddy. When he was 10 years old, he threatened his father that he would kill himself if he was not taught by Panna Rittikrai.[4]

"What they [Chan, Lee and Li] did was so beautiful, so heroic that I wanted to do it too," Jaa told Time in a 2004 interview. "I practiced until I could do the move exactly as I had seen the masters do it."[7][8]

He began training in muay thai at the local temple from age 8 and at age 15 he requested to become a protégé of stuntman and action-film director Panna Rittikrai.[4] Panna had instructed Jaa to attend Maha Sarakham College of Physical Education in Maha Sarakham Province. He has trained for an unspecified time in taekwondo,[4][6] earning a black belt in the art, although there are no details regarding if this was in formal taekwondo training or as part of his stunt team member apprenticeship. Likewise, he is highly skilled in muay Thai and has fought competitively many times during Muay Thai Training Camp, without losing. He is a well versed martial artist excelling in Muay Boran, Muay Thai, Aikido, Judo, Wushu & Taekwondo.

Jaa won several Gold medals in Thailand for track running, fencing & gymnastics.

Jaa was also self trained in various kung fu styles as well as krabi krabong, lethwei and kino mutai, which he can be seen using in the Ong Bak and Tum Yum Goong films. He was a successful high jump athlete at university.[4][6] He is still able to jump two meters high.[6]

Tony Jaa's most notable stunt work was being the stunt man for the character of Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat Annihilation. Tony initially worked as a stuntman for 14 years, Muay Thai Stunt, appearing in many of Panna's films. He doubled for Sammo Hung when the martial-arts actor made a commercial for an energy drink that required him to grasp an elephant's tusks and somersault onto the elephant's back.[9] He was also a stunt double in the Thai television series Insee Daeng (Red Eagle).[10]

Together, Panna and Jaa developed an interest in muay boran, the predecessor of muay Thai and worked and trained for four years at the art with the intention of developing a film about it. Eventually they were able to put together a short film showing what Jaa could do with the help of instructor Grandmaster Mark Harris. One of the people they showed it to was producer-director Prachya Pinkaew, who was duly impressed.

This led to Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior in 2003, Jaa's break-out role as a leading man. Jaa did all the stunts without mechanical assistance or computer-generated effects and it showcased his style of extreme acrobatics and speedy, dance-like moves. Injuries suffered in the filming included a ligament injury and a sprained ankle. One scene in the film involved fighting with another actor while his own trousers were on fire. "I actually got burned," he said in a 2005 interview. "I really had to concentrate because once my pants were on fire the flames spread upwards very fast and burnt my eyebrows, my eyelashes and my nose. Then we had to do a couple more takes to get it right.".[11]

His second major movie was Tom-Yum-Goong (The Protector in the US), named after a type of Thai soup and including a style of muay Thai that imitates elephants.

Sahamongkol Film International advertised that Tony Jaa's third film would be called Sword or Daab Atamas, about the art of Thai two-sword fighting (daab song mue), with a script by Prapas Chonsalanont.[13] But due to a falling out between Prachya and Jaa, which neither have publicly commented on, Sword has been cancelled.[14]

On March 2006 it was reported that there would be a sequel to Ong-Bak, Ong-Bak 2. With Jaa both directing and starring, it started pre-production in fall 2006 and was released in December 2008.[14][15][16][17]

His films captured the attention of his hero, Jackie Chan, who asked director Brett Ratner to cast Jaa in Rush Hour 3. "I gave the director videos of Tony Jaa because I think Tony Jaa is the most well-rounded of all action stars," Chan told the Associated Press.[18] "The director liked him a lot," Chan said.[18] However, Jaa said he'd be unable to participate because of scheduling conflicts with the shooting of Ong Bak 2.[18][19]

Tony Jaa also released Ong Bak 3, as a sequel to the prequel Ong Bak 2.